Since Astral Heroes is sort of officially half dead, I sometimes wonder if the devs might decide to revisit Spectromancer. It is after all a unique game that stands out vs. other card games, unlike AH, which apparently was part of that game's problem.

I thought it would be interesting to talk about what the community might want to see if they ever did develop a sequel to this game. Here are some thoughts of my own:

1. Go back to the original Spectromancer pricing model - you buy the base game and you've got everything, then release expansions for a fixed price. I think the microtransactions in AH were probably part of the reason it didn't do very well. A lot of people (myself included) hate that kind of pricing model and hate having to grind for things like crystals to play the mode they want to play.

2. More clarity with the rules around drawing cards and banned combinations.

3. More community features like a better matchmaking/messaging system in the game client. Some kind of implementation of the guilds system that AH has could work in Spectromancer too, just not as something you have to grind for to access cards. I'm thinking more like having a guild ranking chart and guild team battles/tournaments. (SeaLeta came up with a team battle system on the forums years ago that was really cool, the game could have something like this built in.)

4. Making the game mod-friendly would also be a great community feature.

Tendou

2017-12-23 21:45:20

Since Astral Heroes is sort of officially half dead, I sometimes wonder if the devs might decide to revisit Spectromancer. It is after all a unique game that stands out vs. other card games, unlike AH, which apparently was part of that game's problem.

I thought it would be interesting to talk about what the community might want to see if they ever did develop a sequel to this game. Here are some thoughts of my own:

1. Go back to the original Spectromancer pricing model - you buy the base game and you've got everything, then release expansions for a fixed price. I think the microtransactions in AH were probably part of the reason it didn't do very well. A lot of people (myself included) hate that kind of pricing model and hate having to grind for things like crystals to play the mode they want to play.

2. More clarity with the rules around drawing cards and banned combinations.

3. More community features like a better matchmaking/messaging system in the game client. Some kind of implementation of the guilds system that AH has could work in Spectromancer too, just not as something you have to grind for to access cards. I'm thinking more like having a guild ranking chart and guild team battles/tournaments. (SeaLeta came up with a team battle system on the forums years ago that was really cool, the game could have something like this built in.)

4. Making the game mod-friendly would also be a great community feature.

I am all keen on the concept, but considering the feedback you shared from AH forums I don't see the incentive that this will be done by Apus. I would say there has to be two key factors for any game to stay afloat: It should have a way of reaching a wide audience, also it should conatin features which frequently keeps benefitting the developers incomewise. As AH has both of these going for it and still not sustainable, other differential edge is required.

HeadphonesGirl

2017-12-24 17:01:28

...

I am all keen on the concept, but considering the feedback you shared from AH forums I don't see the incentive that this will be done by Apus. I would say there has to be two key factors for any game to stay afloat: It should have a way of reaching a wide audience, also it should conatin features which frequently keeps benefitting the developers incomewise. As AH has both of these going for it and still not sustainable, other differential edge is required.

This is me speculating, but I believe in AH's case the game's own business model killed it. It is a game where you can reasonably get all the cards without paying, which was intentional, so that the game would not become a "pay to win" situation. Problem is, when you do that, everyone is just going to put the extra time in to get everything for free and no one will bother paying.

I bet that people would still pay for the base game for a Spectromancer 2. I think the old model works better for anything that isn't going to go all out nickel and diming players like Hearthstone.

filip

2017-12-25 00:37:19

oh boy spectro 2 would be so sweet the game's a classic

i would definitely spend money on that

lets crowdfund it

Modified by filip on 2017-12-25 00:39:17

Sandu

2017-12-26 13:40:27

2. More clarity with the rules around drawing cards and banned combinations.

A mode where possible opponent cards are displayed and where you can manually confirm some opponent cards even if they have not been used yet. The mode should be smart enough to automatically take banned and must-have combos into account like displaying E9 if opponent has A7 and F9 and you have W8.

Modified by Sandu on 2017-12-26 13:42:41

HeadphonesGirl

2017-12-26 16:04:20

...

A mode where possible opponent cards are displayed and where you can manually confirm some opponent cards even if they have not been used yet. The mode should be smart enough to automatically take banned and must-have combos into account like displaying E9 if opponent has A7 and F9 and you have W8.

This would be good, but even if the game didn't have it, making it mod-friendly would allow players to come up with such a system.

plong

2018-01-19 12:01:30

If Spectromancer would be my product i would do the following:

I would not try to develop a totally new game (unless of course i had new brilliant ideas about a completely different game logic),but i would release a product called something like

Spectromancer: RELEOADED

In this, i would keep the orginal Online version exactly as it is because its so good, but to make it even moreattractive i would add a couple of interesting new battle modes and to generate cash for the developersadd a module to host tournaments with a small entry fee.

More specific, i would add the following battle modes:

1) ABSOLUTE-MIRROR-MODE: Both player get exactly the same cards (both element cards and same cards of the same random or chosen class): This would of course eliminate the information game because you know exactly what cards your opponent has. The idea is which player is more skilled to maximize a given cards set potential. And it would silence those players complaining about bad draw luck ;)

2) MIRROR-MODE: Same as 1), but both players choose their own class. I think this would be interesting to analyze in terms of class strength, because only those cards are different in a duel the rest of the cards are identical

3) ONE-SHOT-MODE: Both players can choose their own class, get different cards just like in the original game, same draw rules, but every player can only play every card only ONCE. interesting to see who is better at handling their mana resources

4) DAMAGE-THEM-ALL-MODE: When a creature would deal battle damage to the player (because its unblocked) the attacking player can choose to deal the damage to an opponents creature instead.

I have a couple of more ideas, but i would not add too many new options, it would get too confusing.

I think the modes above a really good ideas, but they would probably not solve the problem that the developersget not enough cash from the game. So, if i were in their shoes, i would develop an IN-GAME-INTERFACE TO HOST TOURNAMENTSEvery player had to pay a very small entry fee (2 dollars or so) in order to be able to join the torunament.Rewards for participating would be experience points and if the number of players are big enough, a small amount of cashThis would have to be a PayPal transfer to the developers/company.

And maybe a new offline campaign mode, i dont care too much about this stuff to be honest and would haveto think about it more for suggestions.

I really urge the devlopers to consider this. The good thing for them is that it is not much effort to devlop.Especially the new modes should be not that much work.

give Spectromaner another shot to be successful on the market. Its worth a try.

PS: And if you get insanley richt by doing all this, transfer me some cash as a thank you ;-)

Modified by plong on 2018-01-19 12:29:16

plong

2018-01-19 12:02:11

Modified by plong on 2018-01-19 12:02:26

plong

2018-01-21 09:18:23

And of course

DRAFT-MODE: Each player chooses his own class as usual, but gets no elemental cards automatically.Before the duel begins, all elemental cards are displayed. Players take turns picking the elemental class cards.

This mode might be liked by the MTG-folks and add another dimension of appeal to the game, becausethis mode feels more like a TCG.

Man, this game has so much unused potential.

Modified by plong on 2018-01-21 09:22:48

PandaWarrior

2018-01-26 07:54:00

Since Astral Heroes is sort of officially half dead, I sometimes wonder if the devs might decide to revisit Spectromancer. It is after all a unique game that stands out vs. other card games, unlike AH, which apparently was part of that game's problem.

I thought it would be interesting to talk about what the community might want to see if they ever did develop a sequel to this game. Here are some thoughts of my own:

I think it is important to enrich the game, like adding more cards, improve balance, add extra features. Some cards are too powerful. Some sets of cards are very powerful and some sets are so weak.

Adding more interesting cards may mean more than four cards in one attributes, whether 5 or 6 cards is good?

plong

2018-01-26 10:49:48

...

I think it is important to enrich the game, like adding more cards, improve balance, add extra features. Some cards are too powerful. Some sets of cards are very powerful and some sets are so weak.

Adding more interesting cards may mean more than four cards in one attributes, whether 5 or 6 cards is good?

PandaWarrior, you cannot now this, because it seems you are quite new to the game (considering your level).We had this discussion about 'classes are too weak/strong' or 'card is too weal/to powerful' over and over again.

Trust me, this is not the case. This game is very balanced. This is an astonishing accomplishmentfrom the developers, considering there is a random factor involved when dealing the hands.Only in very, very rare cases a class match up combined with a very specfic card setup can be unfair.And even then the skill differenceof the players will be decisive if there is a noticable gap.

Almost always when you loose, you lost because the other player simply played better/made better useof his card pool/reacted better to your moves than the other way around etc. So when you loose,dont go the easy way and blame the draw, ask yourself what you could have done better. Only then you willimprove.

Modified by plong on 2018-01-26 10:51:22

filip

2018-01-26 11:20:44

...

this.

Modified by filip on 2018-01-26 11:20:50

PandaWarrior

2018-01-26 14:50:26

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Thank you for your discussion and advice. Actually, I've played this game for a time, but mostly vs computer. I think it is an excellent game, too. I am still not familiar with all cards. Hope to improve in the competition.